


Making Castles by the Sea

by treefrogie84



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Background Relationships, Beach vacations, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-16
Updated: 2020-07-16
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:08:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,828
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25294468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/treefrogie84/pseuds/treefrogie84
Summary: There’s no hunt to be found, so it’s time for that beach vacation Dean’s wanted forever. Just a few days of sun, beach... Cas...
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, Jack Kline & Sam Winchester
Comments: 7
Kudos: 51
Collections: SPNColdestHits





	Making Castles by the Sea

**Author's Note:**

> Unlike normal, I did zero research for this. I’m assuming that one of the towns along the coast does whale tours, but who knows.

Sticky heat pours in through the open windows as Dean shifts uncomfortably and stretches his legs across the seat. He’s already stripped down to his t-shirt and is contemplating ditching his jeans. “Really? There’s nothing?” Dean whines, staring up at the Impala’s roof. “Not even a ghost?” It’s too hot to sleep in the car tonight, but they’re also in the middle of nowhere. 

“Even the Florida crazy isn’t our kind of crazy.” Sam sighs and closes the laptop, shoving it and his backpack into the footwell of the backseat. “There’s nothing.”

“Great.” Dean bangs his head against the doorframe. “Want to go check in on Jody and the girls?”

“Tonight?”

Dean shrugs helplessly. “I don’t know dude. How about the Grand Canyon, or a beach?”

“San Diego is nice this time of year,” Sam says hesitantly, like he’s not sure how serious Dean is. “But it’s like a three day drive.”

Dean shrugs, already pulling up his mental map of the highway system and plotting their route. “Not like we’ve got anything else to do. Might call Cas, see if he wants to meet up.”

Sam rolls his eyes. “So you and Cas can make gooey eyes at each other while Jack and I play on the beach?”

“If they’re not busy.”

“You know Cas will drop anything to hang out with you, if you’re not being a dick about it.”

“I—“

“Call him,” Sam orders, wadding up his jacket and flannel and wedging it between his head and the doorframe. “We’re not going anywhere tonight.”

Dean nods, sitting up and sliding out of the car. “I’ll be back.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever. Don’t wake me up, jerk.”

“Night, Sammy.”

* * *

They end up meeting Cas and Jack a bit north of LA, in one of the beach towns that makes its money off tourists and folks taking the coastal highway instead of the interstate. 

Cas already picked out a cheap motel, salt-stained pink stucco and exposed stonework straight out of the sixties. He meets them in the parking lot with keys to two rooms, side by side with a connecting door. 

Sam and Jack promptly claim beds in one room, looking as innocent as they can while Dean sputters and flusters. Cas stops him with a hand on his arm, quietly encouraging him to drop it, to take the gift as it was meant to be.

“Y’all scoped out the food options around here?” Dean asks once he’s dropped his bag on his (?) bed. Sometimes they’re more proactive than others, especially now that Jack’s need for food is more of a taste thing than anything else. Although Cas has developed a coffee addiction, so maybe. 

“I believe Jack is going to try to convince Sam to try some Ethiopian street food before going on a whale tour.”

Dean wrinkles his nose. Despite Sam’s claims to the contrary, he really will eat just about anything, he just never really developed a taste for Ethiopian. And an afternoon whale cruise…

“There’s a group of food trucks near the beach,” Cas continues. “I told Jack we would find something there and catch up with them when they return.”

“Much better.” Dean grins, checking that the doors are closed before pulling Cas close. “Or, we could skip dinner altogether.” Pulling back slightly, he gives Cas a chance to back away before kissing him, relaxing into it. 

Cas brings his arms up around Dean, keeping him close as the kiss deepens and transitions to making out in the center of the room like the teenagers they never were. “We’ll have to eat at some point,” Cas mutters. “But I’m willing to wait if you are.”

“I can be very distracting.”

* * *

“Good call on dinner.” Sam grins widely, teasingly bumping his shoulder into Jack’s and knocking him off balance. “It’s been a while since I could get anything nearly that good.”

“It seemed like something you would like,” Jack says proudly. “Although I wasn’t sure if we should invite Dean and Cas.”

“Nah, let them get their vacation started off privately. Dean will be much less grouchy that way.”

“Are they ever going to admit—“ Jack cuts himself off, glancing at his phone and then darting forward. “We’re going to be late!”

No, Dean and Cas are never going to admit whatever it is between them. No matter how obvious it is to anyone with eyes— including three year old near-gods apparently. Possibly a mortal three year old too, although Sam doesn’t have one of those handy to test. Every time he thinks they might be getting close, another disaster happens. 

At a certain point, they’ve missed their shot.

They’re the last pair onto the tour boat, the captain locking the gate behind them and following them down the gangplank. “You gentlemen ready for this?”

“Absolutely!” Jack beams, glancing over to Sam. “Did you ever do this when you were at college?”

Sam shakes his head. “All my friends in college grew up along the coasts. They didn’t want to do the tourist thing with the Kansas kid.”

Jack frowns, looking unhappy. “But we do all sorts of things that you’ve done before just because I haven’t.”

Sam shrugs, tossing Jack a life vest and putting on his own. “The kids I went to school with were…” he trails off, not sure how to describe them. “Naive,” he settles on. “They’d been going to see whales on field trips since grade school— it wasn’t special anymore.” He’d been working a lot too, which didn’t give him much time when they did go to yacht parties.

Sam shakes himself before sliding an arm over Jack’s shoulder and hugging him. He doesn’t need to load Jack down with it, not when Jack’s got friends of his own.

“It’ll be fun!” Jack says cheerfully, watching the captain carefully pilot the boat away from the dock and towards the open ocean.

* * *

>> _ Docking now _

Dean glances up from his phone to Cas, sitting at the desk while tying his shoes. “Sounds like they’re back, want to meet up and get ice cream?”

“Not pie?”

“I won’t say no to pie, but I think ice cream while walking along the beach is an important family milestone.”

Cas nods. “It is. At least in the movies Jack likes to watch.”

“Then let’s go. We can grab a burger or something while we wait or on our way back.”

The motel isn’t that far away from the docks— a block inland and a couple blocks down— so they just walk it. It’s pretty warm, but not unbearable, especially now that the sun is down. Over and over again, Dean lets the back of his hand brush against Cas’s, like some demented torture he keeps inflicting on himself. 

Because he’s a moron and a coward and has never once been able to say what Cas deserves to hear. Nothing new there.

Jack waves excitedly at them from in front of the ice cream shop, already holding a triple cone melting down and over his hand. “Dean! Cas!”

“Hey kiddo.” Dean dodges a chocolatey hand before glancing around. “Where’s Sam?”

“I don’t think the boat agreed with him,” Jack says with a frown. “He’s sitting down with some water.”

“I’ll check on him,” Cas says, reaching up to squeeze Dean’s arm before heading inside. “What do you want?”

“Surprise me.” He leans against the wall next to Jack. “Did you have fun at least?”

“Whales are so cool!” And Jack’s off and running, telling him about every moment of their trip. He clearly had a good time, and it does sound like fun. 

After a couple minutes, Sam and Cas come back out. Sam’s clutching a plastic cup of water in one hand and a styrofoam cup in the other, while Cas has two double cones. One scoop is clearly chocolate, but Dean doesn’t recognize the others— or he doesn’t trust that it’s what it looks like.

Cas holds one out to him. “Here. This one is for you. Chocolate stout and cherry pie.”

“You… got me beer and pie ice cream?” Dean’s not sure what to say to that. Because Cas nailed it— if there’s anything in there that he’s going to like, this is probably it. “Thanks.” He sways towards Cas, throwing caution to the wind and dropping a kiss on his cheek.

Cas stares at him, eyes wide as a grin spreads across his face. “Of course.”

“What do you have?”

“Red wine chocolate chunk and lavender honey.” He nibbles on the top one— the chocolate chunk, Dean’s pretty sure— before offering it to Dean. “If you want to try…”

Dean mostly wants to drag Cas somewhere far away from Sam and Jack, and the public, and see what ice cream tastes like when smeared across skin, but they’re on vacation as a family and should probably act like it. Nodding, he licks away some of the drips on the side before offering his to Cas.

“Want to hit the beach?” Sam asks behind them. “The sun’s down, but it’s still pretty nice. And I want to stretch my legs.”

“Yes!” Jack says cheerfully, leading the way to the beach access. 

The tide is out when they get down to the water, a quiet evening while most of the tourists are flocking to the restaurants to eat dinner or do something else. Dean’s not entirely certain how vacations normally go— it’s been a while since they had time to do more than catch the occasional basketball game or a cheap concert— but if they continue being like this, he could get used to it.

Jack and Sam find a dog to play with, throwing a tennis ball for it to fetch while sprinting across the sand. Dean and Cas follow behind, slowly finishing their ice cream and then, stealthily, holding hands. 

It’s a nice break, one he wishes they could indulge in more often. But even with Chuck out of the picture, they’ve still got work to do, spread across the country; too many monsters and never enough hunters. 

The story of Dean’s life.

“You know,” Cas starts, “it would be good for Jack to get some practice with other hunters. Or even Sam. If you wanted to work together for a while.”

“You’d be willing?” Dean asks, not really trusting the circumstances. 

Cas shrugs with one shoulder, squeezing Dean’s hand. And yeah, that right there is more open than they’ve managed in years. He misses Cas all the time, maybe this is his chance to stop punishing himself for taking too long. “It’s worth talking about.”

Dean nods, pulling them to a stop while Jack and Sam range further ahead. Vacations are for risks, he thinks, before he stops thinking at all and drags Cas into a kiss.

It lasts for a moment or two before Jack’s happy shout brings them back to the beach and the here and now. 

Grinning, Dean jerks his head. “Ready to catch up?”

“Always.”

**Author's Note:**

> Apologies for formatting weirdness— my internet is down, so I’m trying to make this work from my phone.


End file.
